


Louder than silence and brighter than darkness

by Pizzama8



Series: The Generation of change [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, M/M, Mild Gore, Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:24:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1956675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pizzama8/pseuds/Pizzama8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon investigating an abandoned mining colony Tavros and Vriska find themselves trapped inside a mine shaft. They are not alone, something or someone is following them and as they travel further and further in search of industrial cutting tools to cut their way out of the cave they keep encountering the same word over and over. CALIBORN.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Breakfast aboard the HICS Starchaser

Feferi read the mission assignment with a bored expression. It detailed a series of mining colonies that had gone silent and it was now her job to investigate them. They were right on the edge of troll space and as a consequence three hours flight from their current location; they’d been assigned the mission for this reason alone as all other scouting vessels were pre-occupied with other missions or were too far away to respond in an orderly fashion.

“Four colonies in four weeks, what do you think Eridan?”

“Pirates, almost definitely Fef. There’s no wway this is a coincidence, it’s too methodical and they’re making their wway closer and closer to the established colonies on the fringe of the empire. Wwe need to go down, find out wwhat happened and rescue wwhat survivors wwe can and then try and cut off the pirates.”

“I don’t know; something doesn’t sit right about this. It would be one thing if there were reports but the way the colonies just go silent? No warning, no request for assistance? I don’t think it’s pirates.”

“Wwhat else could it be? Humanity hasn’t expanded to this part of space yet, it’s at least a years flight from the nearest human colony and wwhy would a team of explorers destroy troll settlements?”

“I don’t know that either so let us just wait until we’re down on the planet. I hope it’s pirates, we really don’t need another diplomatic incident to make tensions between us worse.”

Suddenly Karkat’s voice came through a speaker in the arm rest of her captains chair.

“Hey heiress your royal fucking breakfast is ready, tell the other assholes.”

“Stop glubbing calling me heiress Karcrab!”

“Stop calling me fucking Karcrab heiress!”

“It’s a nautical pun!”

“It’s your fucking title!”

“Kar, lay off the captain wwhy don’t yah?”

“Tell her to stop calling me by a stupid nickname!”

There was the sound of struggling on the otherside and Karkat swearing profuosly before Nepeta’s voice came through.

“Hey Feferi breakfast is ready so please tell the others! Also Karcat is very sorry about calling you heiress, aren’t you Karcat?”  
  
“Fucking what does it take to call me by my fucking name fucking bunch off asshole fuckers.”

“He says sorry

Feferi chuckled at that but then changed her tone to that of a mother scalding a child.

“Nepeta shouldn’t you be in bed healing?”

“Yes… but I’ve been in bed for like two weeks now and I’m sick of doing nothing and Karcat said it was okay for me to help him!”

“How’s your leg?”

“Still pretty broken, I’m sitting at the sink and doing the washing but I had to get up because Karcat was being very rude. See you in a few minutes!”

With that Nepeta hung up the communicator and gave Karkat a glare, batting his arm forcefully before limping back over to her chair by the sink and finishing off the dishes from last nights dinner. He rubbed his arm sheepishly and went over to help her, drying the plates and stacking them away whilst she washed them.  
  
“How is your leg?”  
  
“My leg is fine Karcat, seriously stop asking. Did you get any sleep last night?”

“No, but not because of my insomnia this time. Vriska decided to go pay a visit to Tavros to fill their bucket quota early or some shit and Aradia ended up coming to stay in our room with me and you know how she just loves spending time with me. “

Nepeta giggled, handing him another plate.

“You guys are so black for each other and you don’t even realise it.”

“Don’t give me that shit, I’m scared she might legitimately try to smother me in my sleep and it’s only a matter of time before Vriska insists on swapping permanently with Aradia. I feel sorry for Tavros, you know how easily he’s intimidated and goaded into things by her.”

She sighed and nodded, handing him the last cleaned bowl and getting unsteadily to her feet. Once Karkat stacks the bowl away helps her, half carrying and half walking her to the dining table to sit down. They’d set up a small buffet of toast, cereal, juice, bacon, eggs and other breakfast meats and snacks. Everything was in relatively small portions because wasting food on a spacecraft was a sin and also really fucking stupid.

Karkat had large bags under his eyes and looked only slightly better than he felt and he felt like crap. Him and Aradia had fought and argued all night, fortunately the rooms were sound proof otherwise everyone else would have heard it. Aradia had been upset about him not being able to keep Vriska in her own bunk and he was just pissed at having what little sleep he was getting disturbed by one of his least favourite people. Aradia stepped into the dining room and glared over at Karkat as she took her seat, she looked about as bad as Karkat and was equally grumpy about being uprooted from her dorm.

They sat across the table glaring at each other, neither had forgiven the other for last night and there was an icy atmosphere that fell across the table as the other people sat down and shifted uncomfortably between them. Finally Vriska and Tavros entered in good spirits and arm in arm, both Aradia and Karkat turned to them and gave them the best combined death glare they could manage. Not that both of them cared, or rather Vriska didn’t care and Tavros didn’t notice.

They slowly gathered around the table and began to eat, Sollux, Feferi and Eridan being the last to enter and be seated. Whilst they all hungrily ate what they considered their fair share Feferi simply sat staring at her bowl of cereal, pushing the flakes in it around with her spoon whilst she thought. It couldn’t be pirates; the attacks were far too precise and methodical and it definitely wasn’t human raiders because the nearest military settlements were several years away and they would have been detected by troll surveillance. That meant it had to be the actions of a troll ship but why would trolls who weren’t pirates attack mining colonies? Unless they were highbloods carrying out cullings but that didn’t make sense either; if they were cullings they wouldn’t be sent to investigate them.

She soon realised that everyone was sat silently at her, she looked up in surprise and cleared her throat and stood up.

“We’re going to one of the mining colonies. We’ve recently lost touch with several of the minor outposts at the edges of the system so it’s our job to find out what happened. Seeing as Nepeta is injured I’m placing Kanaya in charge of the away team. Kanaya, Gamzee, Tavros and Vriska will be investigating the mine and the rest of us will establish a perimeter around the colony and investigating the town. Any questions?”

“This sounds like a total fucking waste of our time.”

“Not a question Kacrab.”

“Karkat.”

“Does anyone besides Karcrab have a question?”

They were all silent and she nodded.

“Right, we’ll be there in three hours. “

 


	2. The descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrive at the colony to find nothing.

The ship landing was rocky to say the least; the planet suffered from a very mild version of Kessler syndrome and avoiding sending thousands of tonnes of space debris crashing down to the planet below was close to impossible. Or if you happen to have a very talented psionic pilot, merely very hard. Feferi and Eridan were glued to their seats in terror as Sollux navigated their way through the maze of debris, meteorites and other objects floating in the planet’s atmosphere.

“I’m a leaf in the wind, watch how I thoar.”

Sollux said to himself causing Feferi and Eridan to stare at each other with terrified glances and then back over at Sollux who was intently focussed on not crashing into a nearby rock. Thankfully the ship was small enough to avoid the larger bits of debris and the shields powerful enough to repel the smaller bits that Sollux couldn’t dodge. Suddenly a huge asteroid came into view and completely eclipsed the ship. Feferi hissed and Eridan turned to Sollux who appeared to be aiming for a whole that had been bored through it by a mining vessel.

“Sol no.”

“Don’t worry I’m a leaf on the wind!”

“Wwhat the hell does that even mean? Sol we’re not going to fit!”

“We are going to fit fithh breath, trutht me.”

The entire bridge took a deep breath as the ship flew through the hole, narrowly avoiding becoming more debris in the planets orbit. They all let out a collected sigh of relief, Feferi sinking back into her captain’s seat with a grin whilst Eridan scowled at Sollux.

“Told you we’d fit douchebag.”

“Screww you too Sol.”

“Eridan shut the glub up, we’re about to enter the planet’s atmosphere and things are going to get a little tense. If Sollux screws up we’re going to burn up and explode, actually.”

She leant over and pushed the ship wide communicator button, speaking casually into the receiver.

“Everyone aboard I would just like to advise you all say your final goodbyes as there is a very real chance that we will explode in a firey crash that will leave our bodies completely unrecognisable.”

She released the button, nodded satisfactorily and then turned her attention back to the planet as Sollux brought them down into a very violent landing.

When they were safely on the planet and the door was opened they were greeted by an extremely boring desert in pretty much every direction. There were a number of short, windowless metal structures and a huge glass dome in the distance; the traditional appearance for any colony on a largely desert planet.

The process of colonising an inhospitable planet usually took several decades of dedicated terraforming. First self-constructing buildings are placed on the surface in order to provide inhabitants with shelter to survive the conditions of the planet. Second a large bio-dome is constructed by automated drones which then build a second bio-dome as a habitat for that planets mother grub. These domes provided the first wave of colonists both with enough food to survive and with the necessities for reproductive expansion. Increasing population numbers was first and foremost on the goals of a new troll colony; the long lives of most trolls above the olive caste meant that there would be a large work force capable of continuously expanding both the food production and industry of the colony. By the fifth generation a large enough agricultural output would be able to safely match the growing needs of the population as by this point terraforming would have reached a point where the immediate local vicinity was capable of growing crops.

Just from the onset it was clear something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. As they approached the village the agricultural bio-dome had become overgrown from a few weeks of being unattended. Most crops were genetically modified to grow at a rate several times that of their natural ancestors and it showed by the huge plants pressing up against the glass.

The metal structures; ones initially implanted there by the first wave of colonists, were completely abandoned and the pseudo armoury that accompanied each colony was empty of all guns. There was no power, no water, all the general utilities were non-functioning and the mother grub was nowhere to be seen. There was a warm wind blowing sending blasts of sand up against the crew and the empty buildings.

The residential sections were filled with plates, broken furniture, and scratch marks against the steel walls and floor. The scratch marks were perhaps the most unsettling aspect because there was no reason for them; all the buildings had been open when they had arrived. No one had been locked in and there was no blood like you’d expect when you’d drag your nails constantly against a solid surface that refused to give way.

There were no bodies, no blood, signs of combat but no discarded ammo packs or guns. There was nothing but the empty skeletal carcasses of a colony and a silence so oppressive it put everyone on edge. Feferi was reluctant to remain on the planet for much longer and just as she was about to order them to promptly abscond they stumbled upon the mine shaft; a vertical elevator going down into the bowels of the planet.

The others stood nervously behind her; there were eight of them on this jaunt, Nepeta, Sollux, Karkat and Aradia having remained behind on the ship. A gunner, a pilot, a security team member and an engineer. If anything happened to the away team the others would be able to escape and tell the empire what had happened.

“Kanaya, Vriska, Tavros and I are going down the shaft.”

“Fef-“

“Not now Eridan. We’re going down the mine shaft and Eridan is in charge until we get back. Equius see if you can get the utilities back on we’re probably going to be down there for a while and it’d be nice to come back to hot baths big enough to relax in. Terezi see if there’s any perimeter weapons anywhere so that we don’t have to worry about any hostile wildlife. Records on this planet are sketchy at best and completely non-existent at worst. Eridan accompany Terezi and Gamzee stick with Equius. Stay in groups of two or more, don’t get isolated and for the love of god don’t get dead. Now; pass us your water and food, if there’s a cave in I don’t feel like starving or dehydrating before rescue arrives.”

They nodded and the four staying on the surface handed over what water and food they could spare as well as their back up batteries for torches and spare ammo. They all wore the standard issue military suits; each one capable offering a degree of protection but nothing compared to the combat exoskeletons and HEE’s that they’d left behind. However the elevator was unlikely to be able to take the full weight of a hazardous environment exoskeleton in the first place. All ore would be directed straight towards the refinery which itself was probably underground, allowing close proximity to ores and transport of fumes to locations far from the colony  as well as no noise pollution.

Feferi took a deep breath and loaded her pack with the spare water, ammo, food and batteries before stepping onto the elevator and Kanaya joined her looking significantly more composed than her captain. Tavros and Vriska got on after them, Vriska giving Tavros’s hand a possessive squeeze. After a few moments of tinkering Equius managed to restore rudimentary power and the contraption began its slow descent to the darkness below.

“Remember, stay in radio contact with Sollux. If he stops receiving messages from us for more than two hours at any point he will take off without us and head straight for the nearest empire controlled outpost. Give us thirty six hours before heading back to the ship, it shouldn’t take that long but just in case.”

Feferi called out as they descended and soon their crewmates were out of earshot. She quickly rummaged around herself trying desperately to find the light switch for the shoulder mounted lights that came with the standard issue combat suit. Kanaya reached over and gently flicked it on, placing a reassuring hand on Feferi’s shoulder and giving the woman a moment to take a deep breath and calm her nerves.

_It’s fine, it’s just a few million tonnes of rock bearing down on you. Nothing to worry about, mining technology is almost completely safe now with only four thousand deaths empire wide and forty thousand reported cave-ins to match. Considering that the empire spans over two hundred star systems, forty thousand planets and nearly sixty trillion inhabitants those are some pretty good statistics.  Deep breaths, never mind that down here you’re the furthest from water, never mind that seadwellers dehydrate at four times the rate of your average troll. Deep breaths. Oh god it’s completely black._

They raised their rifles expectantly as the elevator came to a stop but what greeted them was not some ancient hostile alien machinery or some parasitic fungal infection or even noxious gases or violent rebels. What greeted them was the same silence that had sat like a lead weight on the settlement above and a darkness so engulfing that not even a horrorterror would claim this place as their own.

Inhaling slowly Feferi took the first step; her shoulder lights shining pathetically into a void that sent her heart fluttering.


	3. Diversion

The darkness was oppressive, stifling, consuming and Feferi could think of a thousand different places she’d rather be. In fact she could think of an infinite number of places she’d rather be than in this mineshaft surrounded in darkness with nothing but the weak beam of her shoulder mounted lights to pierce the abyss that stood before them. Kanaya remained two steps behind Feferi, her rifle raised and ready and one eye trained on Feferi to make sure she didn’t breakdown. The air was almost suffocating, dank, smelling of mould and dust and barely breathable. Suddenly there was a strange whirring noise and Feferi nearly jumped out of her skin; her aim jumping straight to the source of the noise.

Several metal cubes all connected by two metal pipes, one red and one blue, adorned the right wall nestle in the crook where the wall met the ceiling. She let out a sigh of relief; either the ventilation system was already working or Equius had managed to get it working from the surface. They had no way to tell but all four of them were grateful for the slight breeze that indicated that the old air was being slowly pumped out of the mine shaft and replaced with new, clean and refreshingly cool air.

“Captain if you do not feel up for that task you can always return to the surface, I have an engineer and a heavy machinery specialist you are not needed.”

“No Kanaya it’s fine but thanks for the offer. I wouldn’t tell my crew to do things that I wouldn’t do myself first. Let’s just… let’s just keep going.”

Her voice was shaking and she took a deep breath of the now clean air and moved forward; making slow but gradual progress down the dark mineshaft. The area around them was propped up with grey lightweight beams made of a combination of titanium and carbon rods that allowed a one gram beam to support four thousand tonnes of weight.

As they continued they became aware of a faint acidic smell coming from in front of them, it was overpowering and made Feferi gag. Kanaya went to put a concerned hand on her but she shrugged it off, shaking her head and moving forward again. She hated it down here but this had to be done, if there were survivors they needed to help them.

Eventually the mine shaft split in two; one shaft heading east and the other heading north that reeked of the same acidic smell. Feferi bit her lower lip thinking quickly; it would be quicker for them to split up but also more dangerous. What if the survivors needed help moving? How could two of them help the thirty or more trolls that made up the initial wave of colonists. However there was no telling how long the air filters would last and Feferi wanted to get out of the mines as quick as possible, she had already felt panic beginning to rise in her chest when they’d initially stepped off the elevator, This far into the mine her panic had begun to get the better of her. Her breathing was ragged and shaky and her hands shook nervously rattling the gun in her hand.  She closed her eyes again, trying to steady her breathing when finally Kanaya grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Feferi go back to the surface.”

“No I’m fine Kanaya honestly!”

“You are shaking, you’re going to hurt yourself or someone else. We can take care of ourselves, just go back to the surface.”

Feferi sighed and nodded, making her way back to the elevator with a mixture of relief and embarrassment. Vriska gave her a concerned look as she passed before turning back to Kanaya.

“Okay Miss Fussyfangs what do we do?”

“Please refrain from calling me that Vriska, you know I detest that nickname. You and Tavros go right I’ll take this entrance on the left. If you find the colonists bring them back here otherwise see what you can do about restoring light to the mine. It would be nice to be able to see further than a few feet in front of me.”

Vriska nodded and turned towards the east entrance, indicating for Tavros to follow who seemed rather reluctant.

“Do we uh do we have to split up?”

Kanaya nodded, checking her rifle quickly before taking the northern route and calling out to them as she disappeared into the darkness.

“Stay with Vriska she is as capable as I am when it comes to fighting.”

Tavros swallowed nervously and then took after Vriska, a bad feeling rising in his stomach. He wish he was brave enough to show anyone the bruises under his uniform. She was smart enough not to lay a hand on his face.

They walked for what felt like hours in the dark, just the two of them with Tavros keeping one eye trained on Vriska as well as the area in front of him and Vriska kept glancing over her shoulder at him. She wasn’t sure what to talk to him about, last night had been fun and the first time they’d had some alone time since starting joining the crew and she’d been grateful that she could finally pail with her matesprit without fear of interruption.

If only he hadn’t ruined the whole evening by trying to break up with her. He’d soon changed his mind though. She felt like she should apologise to him but anything she would say would just seem shallow and manipulative now, he probably wouldn’t believe anything she said for a long time.

As they walked in awkward silence both of them failed to notice the laser tripwire that they then both proceeded to walk through. It took three seconds for the hidden explosive to detonate which is fortunate because it meant that the cave in crushed Tavros’s legs and not his entire body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who hasn't had five consecutive minutes of internet for a while, that's right this guy! Guess who also made an unreasonable promise to post every single day upon start a work; this guy again! Guess who is seriously sorry and will continue to be so until they finally catch up with their quota. ME! 
> 
> Sorry, so so sorry.
> 
> Not that anyone is actually reading this, but still, sorry again.


	4. Processing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya investigates processing and purification and comes a little closer to solving the mystery of the vanishing colonists.

The acidic smell became stronger and stronger as Kanaya moved down the dark corridor. The air reeked of vomit and blood but there was nothing to act as a source for the disgusting smell and the darkness offered no answer. It was beginning to unsettle her.

All around her the walls loomed ominously and the beams seemed to creak without actually making a sound. She slowly raise a hand and wiped away the sweat that was accumulating on her forehead; a very thorough session in the communal showers would be needed once she returned to the surface.

Finally she arrived at a huge carved out cavern with a long conveyor belt that led from the entrance and into a darkened subterranean refinery. It was a large black metal rectangle with a door directly in front of Kanaya and a small hole that allowed the conveyor belt to enter the refinery. Abandoned chunks of ore and rock remained on the conveyor belt ready to be refined into useful building materials.

The stench of decay was overbearing in here and there was no other way in or out of the cavern, the source of the awful smell was in here somewhere. Kanaya moved slowly forwards and tested the door, gripping the handle and shaking it violently. It didn’t budge. She sighed and walked over to the conveyor belt and took a deep breath before shouldering her rifle and climbing on to it.

Traditional colonial refineries had a conveyor belt where the ore was deposited and then fed straight into the machinery; a series of grinders and drills would break up the rock into small fragments before it was finally deposited in a smelter to melt down the ores into their metals and then poured into a divider which split up the metals into their individual elements.

In theory one could climb onto the conveyor belt and then safely descend to the factory floor where the engineers worked to keep the machinery in working condition. This was provided no one turned the machinery on whilst you were inside; in which case an extremely painful and messy death would be soon to follow.

She slowly crawled forward into the dark.

The going was difficult, she had to stop constantly to awkwardly manoeuvre around lumps of unrefined ore or tentatively duck under grinders or drills. Each time she had to move past, through or under a set of equipment she would inhaled sharply and make a silent note to herself that life could be unfortunately brutally short and time was probably running out for her to do all the things she wanted to do before she died.

Suddenly a wave of foul air hit her like a wall and she was only able to stand up after gagging violently. Gasping for breath and leaning against a silent drill she took in her surroundings. It would be completely black in the refinery were it not for her shoulder lights sending beams that bounced off of the metallic surfaces and giving everything a very dim glow. She could just make out objects dangling from the ceiling; she turned and trained her lights on the objects and then stumbled backwards off of the conveyor belt and down to the factory floor below.

The fall knocked the wind out of her and she lay on the metal floor gasping for breath. It took her three minutes to recover and when she finally did she forced herself to face what had shocked her in the first place. Above her, dangling from the smelter’s tracks, were five highly decomposed bodies and all were still wearing their ruined engineering uniforms. There was a steady drip, drip, drip of fluid slipping from where their feet should be and down to the floor.

The smell was rotten, but not the stench that had been tormenting her and had forced Feferi back to the surface.

She pulled her eyes away from the awful scene and headed for the door, one hand covering her mouth and her eyes squinting in pain. She found the door and next to it was an outdated clock in machine with six punch cards. She gave it a cursory glance before unlocking the door that had been barred from the inside and letting in some slightly less foul air.

Breathing heavily and wiping her forehead again she turned and began to slowly, methodically explore what remained of the refinery. The smelter was cold, all the machinery was quiet and unmoving and the five bodies continued to drip, drip, and drip onto the floor.

Everything was connected; the conveyor belt snaked its way around the square structure through drills, grinders and other processing equipment finally ending abruptly above a smelter. From the smelter a concrete funnel poured the molten materials into metal bowls that now lay dormant dangling from a production line that lead into the final ore purification chamber which was a huge black cylinder made of some indefinable metal.

Suddenly one of the bodies fell and hit the ground with a sickening, squishy thud. Kanaya pivoted on the spot with her rifle raised but there was nothing, she moved quickly to where the bodies were and as she expected one was missing. Looking around and trying her best to ignore the foul smell she saw a trail of orange and green looking liquid that disappeared behind the metal cylinder that was the purifier.

She took a deep breath and raised her rifle, holding it steady despite terror mounting itself inside her like a tidal wave. As the monster came into view it was almost a disappointment to see a weak, whimpering and seriously injured blue blood rather than whatever nightmare her imagination had conjured up. She lowered her rifle and took a step towards them; it was impossible to distinguish their gender or any other feasible trait that might be used to ascertain their identity. Their hair was in clumps, their limbs broken and bent off at odd and painful angles, their face was one part horror and two parts agony.

However there was still light in the trolls eyes, light and desperation. They looked up at Kanaya with pleading eyes and tried desperately to spew out a word.

“Caliborn…”

Ominous but at the same time completely nonsensical Kanaya thought as she raised the rifle and fired; putting the dying troll out of their misery. She felt bad for killing the only survivor but her conscious was overruled by her common sense. There was no way for her to transport them, let alone heal them back on the ship. She’d received the most medical training in the entire crew and she knew a lost cause when she saw one. Whoever they were was already dead when they’d come to the planet.

The only question that remained unanswered was where the other colonists had gone and the only people capable of answering that question were the colonists themselves and they were unfortunately the ones that were missing. She sighed and left the building, disappointed that there were still questions left unsolved.

The explosion caused by the tripwire sent a shockwave through the entire mine and Kanaya had to resort to leaning against a nearby wall to steady herself. The shaking lasted only a handful of seconds and when it stopped she started running.


	5. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska awakes and assesses the situation.

 

“Tavros?”

There was darkness and pressure; unrelenting and insurmountable pressure crushing her right arm. Her right eye was sticky, covered in some unknown substance that was almost definitely blood. She began to panic; she couldn’t see and she couldn’t reach the switch for her shoulder mounted lights and the impenetrable darkness left her completely isolated.

She called out, her voice croaking and each movement causing shots of pain to rack her body. Her left hand began searching her left shoulder and after a few moments of awkwardly contorting it she managed to turn on the auxiliary lights that had escaped being damaged by the explosion.  As the light came on it became very clear why she couldn’t move her right arm; it was gone, crushed beneath a section of ceiling. She began to scream, in pain, in shock and began to flail around wildly until she found her rifle and picked it up in a fit of madness.

Her heart raced as she pressed it at an awkward angle against her crushed arm; she couldn’t stay here and the arm wasn’t doing her any good. The superheated laser rounds from the rifle would be enough to cut and cauterise the wound so that she didn’t bleed to death. Twisting her head to see what she was doing, she took a deep breath and held the trigger until the clip was empty.

The upside of laser weapons was that there was virtually no kickback; no firing mechanism was needed as they were just bolts of extremely hot light. The downside was that whilst they could cut through skin and muscle relatively easily; burning or melting bone was considerably more difficult. The first magazine got a quarter of the way through her bone before there was the tell-tale beep of an empty clip.

It wasn’t until five seconds later that she realised the gun wasn’t firing. Her arm flung to her side as she took a few moments to catch her breath before slowly, with one hand, she reloaded the rifle and pressed it against the exposed bone and began firing again.

This magazine was enough to tear through the remaining bone and she ripped her entire body away from the arm; what little flesh remained to hold her to it was torn apart by her movement. She rolled over and then again onto her back to stare at the ceiling.

Slowly, hesitantly she stood up until she was standing haphazardly. She looked around; the shoulder light the only source of illumination in the cave forced her to reach out tentatively with her mind to try and find Tavros. There she found a faint glimmer of consciousness and she reached out to it, trying to pinpoint its location. It took her a few seconds of concentration, the pain of her right arm distracting her and it took a supertroll effort to ignore it.  She found him in the darkness; his mind almost as quiet as the weight of rocks bearing down on them.

He was trapped several feet away from her; both his legs completely crushed by a huge wall of rock behind them. On the other side she could sense a faint pulse of someone familiar but they were too far away and the rocks did too much to interfere with her abilities in order for her to identify who it was.

She sighed; it looked like they were going to be trapped here for a while. Tavros’s legs were crushed but whilst she was here he wouldn’t need to move. Cutting off his legs would just be a waste of ammo; ammo that they might need if they’re attacked by whatever wiped out the colony on the surface. She sat down next to him and slid off her backpack and began to sort the contents; several batteries, enough water and food to last them a few days and enough ammo between the two of them to take care of any threat that might come their way. She rummaged through Tavros’s pack whilst he lay there and pulled out his batteries, ammo, food and water before finding what she’d hoped he’d taken. Engineers were taught to always bring electrical flares wherever they went just in case there was a power cut and she thanked him silently for having the sense to bring one with him. She struck it against the rock and a dull green light illuminated their spot.

The cave in was only on one side; the side leading to the exit. She sighed and pointed the light and her gun out into the darkness extending into the mineshaft in front of her.  The low ceiling, blocked exit and oppressive darkness left her with a feeling of intense claustrophobia and loneliness. She closed her one good eye and reached out with her mind. The pulse of conscience that had been beyond the blockage was now gone, too far out of her reach to even attempt to identify. It was most likely Kanaya and if that was the case she’d almost definitely return with help. She continued to reach out in front of her this time; trying to detect any threat that might be approaching them before it got within sight. Still nothing.

It was a silence she wasn’t used to; usually she could sense everyone’s thoughts within the vicinity, in fact it took a great deal of effort for her to tune it out but this silence, the sheer wall of emptiness that surrounded her, was beginning to get to her. Without the constant background murmur of subconscious, conscious and verbal voices she suddenly felt very isolated.

In the silence something caught her attention; an absence of a sound that should not have been absent. The continued drill of the air purification system had vanished and that absence gripped her heart like a vice. Without a constant flow of air into the system how much time did they have before they suffocated? How much time before their precious air supply ran so thin that staying conscious would be impossible and would help arrive before they died from asphyxiation? She rose slowly and began to pace to try and calm herself down, her heart and mind were racing trying to find an answer to this problem. Maybe there was a second exit shaft somewhere further down; in case of situations like this so that any workers stuck on this side could evacuate.

She glanced back over at Tavros and contemplated what her next course of action should be; she deliberated for a few moments before quickly grabbing her rifle, some water, food, ammo and batteries from their combined stores and headed out into the darkness. She could only see several metres in front of herself but she used her psychic abilities to probe ahead and behind her to ensure nothing took her by surprise. Silence. Deafening, incomprehensible, immutable, undeniable and overwhelming silence.

This was too much.

She walked for what felt like hours searching for a way out, a sign of life anything to break the constant stream of nothing.

“He does not want you. Why do you persist.”

The words rang like church bells up and down the mineshaft and she turned around raising her rifle one handed to face whatever or whoever had said it. Nothing. Frantically she reached out with her mind to find the source of the words but nothing. Onwards she moved, her heartbeat hammering beneath her skin.

There had to be something down here.

“You hit him to make him stay. He is with you out of fear. Why do you persist.”

Again the words, heavy, carrying the weight of secrets with them.

“He belongs to me!”

She cried out into the darkness; turning in a circle with the rifle pointed outwards. Her mind found no pulse, no sign of life and yet she was sure someone had spoken, something had spoken. The darkness itself seemed to have become an ageless entity now surrounding her and leaving her no room to breathe.

She began to run.

“He belongs to himself. You take what you want from him. He does not want you. Why do you persist.”

“He is mine and I can do what I want with him! He’s my matesprit!”

“That is not matespritship that is ownership. He does not reciprocate your feelings. Why do you persist.”

“He is my matesprit!”

She screamed; firing into the darkness at random and sending bolts of light cascading down the mineshaft illuminating the walls.

Faces. Hundreds of faces in every direction embedded into the walls themselves. Immovable, expressionless, open mouthed and open eyed and hungry; they were contorted in expressions of hunger and pain and agony and their collected suffering reached out to Vriska.

“Why do you persist.”

“I-I I don’t know! I want to make him stronger!”

“Why do you persist.”

She screamed at the faces in the rock; firing a volley of shots into them.

“Why do you persist.”

“He is mine!”

“Why do you persist.”

“He needs me!”

“Why do you persist.”

“Because I have no one else otherwise! There are no scourge sisters anymore, no one else on the ship considers me there friend! Without Tavros I’m alone!”

“You are alone anyway.”

This time the voice came not from the walls, nor the rock or the impenetrable darkness, but from behind her. Her spine stiffened and she dared not turn; reaching out tentatively with her mind told her all she needed to know. Whatever was behind her was real.

“The silence is maddening isn’t it?”

She nodded slowly and a lump formed in her throat, her stomach contorted and twisted and she felt like she was going to throw up.

“Turn the light off. You do not wish to see my face.”

She nodded ever so slowly and complied; she felt no malicious intent and the familiar feeling of another conscious mind was a relief.

“Focus on my mind. Do not listen to the walls they have insidious whispers. Many died here.”

They spoke in broken fragments with a broken voice; each letter sounding difficult and alien on the speakers tongue. Vriska did as she was told and latched on to the mind like a parasite.

“Do not delve too deep. Follow me.”

The surface of the mind was like a fortress and she had a feeling she couldn’t probe further even if she wanted to. She felt a hand, gnarled and wet with some unknown substance, touch hers and she flinched but relented. Her hand was placed on a gnarled damp shoulder and the shoulder began to move; to where she had no idea but even this solitary monster was better than whatever inhabited the walls around them.

“Many died. I am the only one left. Spacecraft come we think supplies. Something terrible came from it. Fled to the mines. Many died. Tried to contact help none came. You are too late for survivors.”

“What about you?”

The shoulder halted and a dim light appeared and was slowly raised so that the body that the shoulder belong to was visible. It was horribly scarred and covered in welts that oozed puss; they looked painful and enflamed and infected.

“I am no survivor.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rather proud of this chapter to be honest, I feel it's some of my better writing.
> 
> I apologise deeply for disappearing for so long to all those who still read this and have had such great patience with me. Let me assure you that more updates and consistent updates are coming for the near future. Life has calmed down for me and now I have more time for doing the things I love; being a homestuck piece of trash and writing trashy homestuck fanfics.
> 
> Anyway please let me know what you think; those of you who have sent me requests they are being written and they will be up and available to read at some point in the next week or two now that I have a regular writing schedule. Many of you have waited a very long time and I apologise for that.
> 
> Tell me what you think of the chapter! I don't care how harsh you are about my grammer/spelling/writing style so long as it gives me a way to improve I'll be happy.


	6. Return to the surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya returns to the surface and finds everything amiss; Vriska and the survivor continue their walk in the darkness.

A rock wall stood between her and those she was supposed to protect; reaching out she gently laid a hand against the wall and pushed it with all her strength as if to test to see if it was some kind of illusion. It wasn’t and she felt like despairing; they had no mining equipment aboard their ship and any further detonations would almost definitely cause a second cave in. She took a slow steady breath and shined her light along the entire length of the rock looking for a weakness or somewhere to break through without risking the security of the entire mine shaft but to her dismay there was nothing.

Kanaya was beginning to worry; to lose two friends on their second assignment was not something the crew needed. She took a few moments to collect herself and felt something briefly brush against her mind; a sensation she’d felt many a time before whenever Vriska was in the room. So she was alive at least and that was more than enough for Kanaya to justify returning to the surface and mounting a proper rescue mission.

She didn’t walk back to the elevator she sprinted; fortunately Feferi had the foresight to send the contraption back down after returning to the surface and so it was only a brief ascension before she was back on the surface. She took a deep breath of the natural and fresh air before pausing. There was no sentry, no one who was supposed to be there was there.

Slowly she raised her gun and turned off her shoulder mounted lights and stepped forward; her eyes constantly scanned her surroundings and the only sound she made was her slow calm breathing. Take two steps, check the surroundings, advance again, check again, repeat; she focused on this mantra in her head as she slowly moved through the colony checking each building.

There was no sign of life just like they’d arrived and no traces of blood. There were however fresh laser marks all over the walls of the squat buildings and she traced them to find where the shots had been fired from. Most of the burn marks indicated a wide arc of fire and the number of marks indicated that whoever was firing was in a rush to do so. They gradually receded from the mineshaft and out to where the ship had landed; whatever had happened above ground whilst she was down in the mine had resulted in her friends committing to a retreat.

“Kanaya; Kanaya can you hear me?”

Her inbuilt headset sounded off and she leant down to nudge the response button with her chin and speak.

“Captain? What happened and why is nobody guarding the colony?”

“We were forced into the biodome; come quick there are raiders on the planet.”

The voice sounded like Feferi’s sure enough but something nagged at the back of her mind; if there were raiders on the planet how come there were no signs of return fire and the biodome was on the other side of the colony and all the evidence pointed towards her friends having evacuated in the opposite direction of the structure. She turned to the dome and weighed up her options; she could head back to the ship but that could be a mistake especially if Sollux had taken off on Feferi’s orders and that wasn’t to mention the fact that it might sound like Feferi’s voice but lots of things sounded like Feferi’s voice in her opinion (Blenders, nails on a chalk board, high pitched irritating things).

“Captain with all due respect how do I know it’s you?”

There was a sigh from the other end of the mic followed by a raspy cough; whatever came next had a considerably deeper voice that sounded like it couldn’t quite clear its throat.

“Your death could have been quick.”

“I promise yours will not be; are any of my crewmates alive?”

There was a dark chuckle followed by static and then nothing; the silence fell like a tombstone and she swallowed nervously. Finally the thing spoke in the voice of a handful of different people; Feferi, Equius, Terezi, Vriska, Eridan at the same time.

“Come and find out.”

She considered this for a moment; among those voices were none who had remained on the ship and she hoped that meant they were unharmed. Right now the priority was getting help and finding survivors and though she wanted to hunt down whatever claimed to have killed her friends her common sense won out and she decided to head back to the ship.

Far beneath the surface past the cave in something in the dark began to stir and in the distance a faint wailing could be heard. Vriska reached out with her mind as she did so instinctively to find the source of the noise but the mental slap from the beast she followed was enough to make her think otherwise.

“Do not touch it; it’ll burn your mind and you’ll become just like them.”

The only thing that offered light in the darkness was a small lamp the beast held that was stuffed to the brim with what appeared to be some species of glow worm but even in the dim light it was clear it was pointing towards the walls.

“It’s the source of them; we had a powerful psychic with us and they merged. We could not save her and all perished.”

He sounded so forlorn, defeated and she felt a pang of sympathy for him but that was soon replaced with the fear; the faces were stronger than her so whatever birthed them would most likely snuff out her mind like a candle.

“What happened here?”

“Ship came; on it there was doctor. He offered vaccine for deadly virus that was plaguing colonies. We accept his offer but the vaccine is a trick and those it was given to turned into monstrosities. They hunted and killed. Now only three of us remain; me, the psychic and our leader. We do not know where our leader is but he escaped to the surface.”

The beast shrugged but did not turn to face her.

“He was  asshole anyway. Maybe he was eaten by one of the dune snakes.”

“Dune snakes?”

“Yes dune snakes; great beasts that shift through the sands. We lost many to them before we established the perimeter which hid our seismic frequencies.”

“For someone who speaks in partially broken sentences you know an awful lot of long words.”

“Poor grammar not mean stupid or poor vocabulary. Not many to talk to down here.”

“I’d bet; where the hell are you taking me anyway?”

“You must help me kill the psychic; she draws the snakes to us now that she is awake. If we do not act fast these mines will not exist.”

“Right and how exactly do we kill her?”

She asked this as the shaft opened up into a vast chamber; in the center of the chamber was a giant shapeless mass of flesh oozing and shifting by itself. On the walls there was hundreds, thousands of the faces like she’d seen in the shaft and all of them were wailing in agony and pain. The central mass remained ominously silent however. She stared around in horror at the walls which extended upwards into the darkness beyond their meagre source of light but then her attention was drawn to the central mass that had started to move towards them.

Despite the wailing, despite the fact her mind was focused on the beast who had led her there she could still feel the overwhelming psychic strength that felt like an anvil on the atmosphere.

“She can only focus on one; I distract and you attack her mind. There is not much left, search and find her heart then shoot it. I will keep her occupied as long as I can.”

The beast sat down and crossed its legs then; focusing intently as Vriska with some difficulty reloaded her weapon.

“Ready?”

It asked.

“About as ready as I’m ever going to be.”

She raised the rifle and reached out with her mind.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave kudos and comments; constructive criticism is welcome but hey if you wanna be an absolute dick then I can't really stop you... on the other hand if you want to adore me and everything I do I do have a cult if you wanna join that.
> 
> Shirts are like £15.45 for a medium +£1.50 P+P


	7. The hunt begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya confronts the monster that has abducted her friends and Tavros wakes up.

“Kanaya what the fuck are you doing here?”

Karkat stood in the doorway leading into the ship with a look of confusion on her face, she pushed past him without much ceremony and ran through the whole ship and quickly affirmed what she’d been afraid of. The crew was missing which meant that whatever had contacted her had been telling her the truth and her friends were now hostages or worse.

“Have you seen Feferi or the others?”

“What? No Kanaya what the fuck is going on?”

“Vriska and Tavros are trapped underground by a cave-in and the others have been abducted by a hostile entity. The ship has to be ready to leave by the time I get back with Vriska and Tavros understand?”

Kanaya changed course suddenly and headed straight for their armoury; she picked out four thermal mines and an ammo bag and shoved them in there. She looked around for something specific but didn’t see them so took off with Karkat two steps behind her towards the infirmary

“Nepeta. Claws. Where?”

“My room, why do you need them?”

Kanaya didn’t reply and headed straight for Nepetas room, punching in a security override key and stepping inside. She rummaged through her things whilst Karkat stood standing awkwardly in the doorway, not wanting to intrude on one of his shipmate’s privacy. She eventually found the pair a few minutes later buried at the bottom of a desk underneath what she (admittedly unfairly) assumed was a folder filled with love letters to Karkat.

“Out of the way Karkat.”

“You’re going out there again by yourself?”

“You need to stay here. Cover the ship and if I am not back by the time the sun sets, leave. Have one person posted at the door at all times and do not let anyone in unless you have a visual on them understood?”

Karkat looked at her in confusion and began stuttering an answer.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

She put on the gloves and from the knuckles sprouted short lasers. They were meant for opening up spaceship hulls from the outside but they also made for excellent improvised weapons. She tested them a few times, flexing to get used to how they were turned on and off before getting up and heading back out.

“Wait!”

“Karkat I don’t have ti-“

He hugged her tightly and looked up at her, shooshing her and papping her face gently with a serious expression.

“We’ll wait until you come back; you’re the biggest fucking badass I know and you’re going to rescue all of our useless fucking crewmates like the badass you are.”

The pale gesture made her blush and she simply nodded before turning away and heading straight for the bio-dome. She didn’t have time to figure out her quadrants, that could come after she’d saved everyone.

Feferi awoke groggily with a giddy head, she automatically tried to stretch but her lack of movement told her that she was restrained for now. Her body ached and she squinted and shuffled even harder trying to get her arms free of whatever had her pinned, slowly she opened her eyes and realised she was dangling upside down and panic began to grip her tight. She looked around trying to gain her bearings; she was dangling from some kind of tree which meant they had to be in the biodome.

Above her through a thick canopy of plants that had overwhelmed their tiny insular habitat she could make out sunlight; the light cascading through the leaves managed to quell some of the panic in her chest. She looked up and threw up instantly, twisting her head downwards and watching as the stuff splattered on the ground far below. She was wrapped up in some kind fleshy cocoon that stank of blood and infection, she closed her eyes and groaned before craning her head looking for her friends.

 

She spotted Gamzee and Equius dangling from other tree’s first, the branch supporting Equius seemed close to snapping and a horrifying image of his head exploding on the ground filled her mid. She took a deep breath and searched for Terezi before finally spotting her; she was tied around a branch rather than dangling from one and seemed as unconscious as the other two.

From below she saw something creeping up with more limbs than was sensible; the creature looked like it had four arms, two and a half legs, six claws and all the while it oozed and dripped a putrid coppery substance that left the air smelling like rot. At what she could only assume was its head extended a long needle like snout that looked uncomfortably like a proboscis and the creature as a whole reminded her of the giant mosquitos from the largely aquatic world of Risis 4.

Her worst fears were confirmed when she saw the creature slowly press its Proboscis into Terezi’s abdomen, causing the girl to flinch but not wake. Whatever the creature had done to sedate them was strong, fuchsia bloods were famous for their constitution and resistance to poisons and toxins and it had laid her out for an unknown amount of time.

“Keep away from her!”

The creature flinched and slowly pulled it’s appendage out of Terezi with a disgusting sucking noise and tilted a stump of flesh towards her.

“The little empress is awake? I should have suspected as much, the venom he gave me is not strong enough to keep a royal blood subjugated for long. No matter my bindings will hold you whilst you watch me consume your friend from the inside out.”

In again the proboscis went and Feferi yelled, struggling fiercely against her restraints as she saw the parasite suck whatever it wanted out of her friend. This was too much and she reached around inside for her weapon or anything that might get her out of the cocoon, with horror she realised that beneath the fleshy restraint she was naked.

That stump was still pointed at her, still watching her from some mass of flesh she could not identify.

“Are you just realising you have been disarmed? You all have such delicious bodies, particularly the blue blood. So muscular, so strong, I imagine his muscles will taste exquisite. Your friends will come to save you and I will put them down as well. I will consume all your friends and then I will consume you empress; you will be the fines and last of my meals.”

“You poor wretched thing, what happened to you?”

“Caliborn.”

It hissed the word like a curse.

“Mmm, teal bloods have the perfect balance. Sweet enough to sate the appetite but light enough as to not be overwhelming.”

“Let her go! Why don’t you start with me? If my blood is so exquisite then surely it only makes sense to start with your final dish! Why wait? I might be able to escape whilst you’re feeding.”

That last comment gave the creature pause and slowly it withdrew its bloodsucker from Terezi’s abdomen. Through her disgusting restraints her teal blood began to leak but she wouldn’t die of blood loss anytime soon. However Feferi now had something else to worry about other than saving her head gunner. The creature slowly reached across and grabbed the branch that Feferi was dangling from and swung itself over to the tree, its limbs sinking into the wood with a crunch.

“So eager to be eaten, so eager to be drained. You will regret talking such sense when I start small empress, it’s quite excruciatingly painful or so I’m told.”

The creature said as it slowly repositioned Feferi so that she was laying horizontal across the branch and slid it’s proboscis into her between her ribs. She screamed in agony it felt like someone was burning every nerve in her chest. Then it began to suck; it felt like her soul was being pulled out of her, she could hear the blood being drained into the creature which seemed to hum as it ate.

The beast let out an ecstatic groan as it tasted her; it was a cocktail of pleasure dancing on its tongue, heavy and full of so much flavour the creature thought it would burst. It wanted more, needed more, and it began to drink her blood eagerly.

Then a laser shot tore its proboscis in half and it let out a scream that destroyed the silence of the biodome. Kanaya watched it fall and headed straight for the direction as Feferi panted unable to move. The lower half of the proboscis still inside her and any time she moved sent spasms of pain through her body.

Kanaya didn’t have time to rush to Feferi’s aid; eliminate the target first, tend to the wounded later. She advanced into the jungle that was the bio-dome with a killer instinct and every part of her body coiled ready to strike.

Below ground laser fire rang out through the mine and made its way all the way back to where Tavros lay. He stirred and awoke groggily from his unconscious state unable to feel his legs; he looked around confusedly in the darkness the only light was from a faint electrical flare that did little to properly illuminate the area. He looked behind him at the mass of rocks on top of his legs and began to scream.

Somewhere not too far from the colony a great mass began to move in response to the cry of agony, it was confused and hungry and angry. Slowly it ground through the dirt towards the source of the sound, it’s movements causing the ground to shake.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to criticise my work! Or don't, it's up to you it's not like I read it anyway b-baka!


	8. Killer Kanaya: Beyond biodome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya engages the monster to save her friends, Karkat and Aradia decide to do something helpful and we get closer and closer to the end of this disastrous mission.

Karkat paced around the infirmary nervously his hands playing with themselves frantically as he waited patiently for Kanaya’s return. Every now and then he would look over at the clock that was standardised to Alternia time, it had only been five minutes. Nepeta watch him with a mild look of exasperation; he needed to calm down she was sure things would be fine. Sure she might have been the one to win the promotion but Kanaya was just as skilled as she was when it came to combat and she was armed with their best equipment.

“Karka-“

“This is insane, it’s fucking insane something took down our entire crew and she went to fight it by herself? Who has that kind of death wish what the fuck is she thinking?”

“Ka-“

“I mean seriously her chances of coming out of this alive are so fucking slim she literally forced herself to go on an unnecessary suicide mission.”

“Karka-“

“I should go after her, I should grab a rifle I’m a pretty good shot myself an-“

“Karkat!”

He continued to pace and rant, not really paying any attention to her or even notice that she was shouting his name. Aradia stepped into the infirmary and sat down, smirking at Karkat as he worked himself up into a frenzy. Nepeta gave Aradia a desperate look and she sighed, stood up, and grabbed Karkat and slapped him.

“Calm down.”

He blinked and scowled at her and was about to start yelling and she rolled her eyes and slapped him again. He blushed furiously, took a deep breath and let out a sigh and slowly disentangled himself from her and then slapped her back. Aradia stood there for a moment before growling and lunging forward; the two were about ready to murder each other if it wasn’t for the fact that Nepeta thumped out of the bed in an attempt to break them up.

Karkat immediately turned away from Aradia and rushed over to her, Aradia arriving a second later and the pair gently lifted Nepeta back up to the bed.

“You guys need to go after them.”

Karkat shifted uncomfortably and turned to Aradia, the idea of working with her just felt wrong to him. Aradia simply fixed him with a hard look but then shrugged.

“I don’t see why not. Kanaya probably needs our help and if any of them are injured we’ll need to be there to help get them back to the ship.”

He sighed and groaned before muttering something incomprehensible to himself.

“Fine, let’s go arm ourselves and go chase after Kanaya who is chasing after some kind of predator that disabled our entire crew what could go wrong!”

Aradia smirked and followed him as he left the room in a huff. Nepeta couldn’t do anything but give her a disapproving look; it was just her luck that everyone was trying to fill Karkat’s quadrants the moment she attempts to even make a move.  She sighed and flinched in pain, her broken leg flaring up in its cast as she moved. Life could be so unfair sometimes.

Kanaya pushed her way through the indoor forest, the overgrown trees, plants and crops making it difficult to keep track of whatever the hell it was she was chasing. She caught a glimpse of it and fired a volley of laser shots in its general direction. They tore through the foliage and burned towards their target but no sound of impact came, no scream of pain or fear, instead they fizzled out upon contact with the wall of the biodome.

There was a dark chuckle behind her and she swung around in time for the downward slice to cut open her rifle and not her stomach. She leapt back and flicked on the plasma claws and jumped forward; it swung again and she ducked and cut the appendage straight off. The claws burned instantly through the flesh cauterising the wound but severing it quickly. The monster cried out in agony, wheeling back and lunging out again and once again she dodged nimbly and cut the offending limb all the way to its first joint.

The creature reared back and fled into the forest to nurse its wounds and she let it run, returning to her rifle to see if she could salvage anything. The creature’s claws had cut straight through the metal of the barrel but the firing mechanism was, miraculously, intact. She raised and fired it experimentally and the rifle shot off a blob of laser energy that dissipated a few meters in front of her. She sighed but kept it with her, it would be useful if she could get a clear close shot of the creature. Once again she picked her way through the flora in search of her prey.

Feferi’s complexion had become dangerously pale, the wound the creature had given her was blooding profusely but she could only wonder how Terezi was holding up.

“Feferi!”

Karkat’s voice called up to her, she craned her neck in the direction of his voice but she couldn’t tell if she was seeing a hallucination or not. If she was about to die why the hell was it showing her Karkat? She’d much rather have a more pleasant death hallucination like Kanaya, or Sollux, or both of them. She tried to speak but her mouth failed to form words and all she let out was a low groan.

“Hold still we’re coming up.”

She tried to shake her head, tried to indicate towards Terezi but it was futile. Her vision was going dark, blurry, and she couldn’t even speak. Her head was dizzy and her body slowly going numb. She heard someone scale the tree and that person say something leading to a second person climbing the tree with Terezi on it, that reassured her a little and again the voice on her tree said something to the one opposite. From the sound of the voice it was distress, maybe her wound was worse than she had anticipated?

There was the sound of laser fire and the screech of the creature, noises that encouraged Karkat and Aradia to work faster as they cut their friends free. He blushed furiously when he realised that Terezi was naked underneath the flesh cocoon which he carved away with his knife. She blinked awake weakly and gave him a smile which was almost painful to manage.

This wasn’t good.

“Hey karkles….”

“Hey, you’ve had the fuck kicked out of you so just hold still. You’re probably going to need a blood transplant.

“Why am I naked?”

“Fuck if I know, I guess whatever attacked you guys stripped you?”

He said this as he cut her free finally and hauled her over his shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that she was completely nude and bleeding quite heavily for what appeared to be a superficial wound. He looked over at Aradia who had Feferi over her shoulder and nodded and they both stepped off the branches and Aradia lowered them to the ground with her psychic abilities. They landed with a thud and Aradia leant herself against a tree, carrying four people was no simple feat and she wasn’t as thoroughly trained as Sollux or Vriska was.

Terezi let out a small chuckle and attempted to lift her head to see what was going on but was too weak to manage it.

“Brings back memories right Karkles, me naked you not.”

Aradia gave Karkat a small smirk and a curious look, storing that information away to follow up at a later date. He refused to meet her gaze and made a mental note to refuse to answer any of her questions, their little fling in basic training had both cemented their opinions of each other and it wasn’t something he was eager to repeat.

“When you’re done staring spades into the back of my head do you think you could fucking help me? We need to get these guys back to the ship and stabilise them.”

Aradia scowled but relented, focusing and trying to lift the two. This wasn’t going to work, she couldn’t walk and carry these two at the same time. She blushed faintly at Karkat before finally speaking.

“You’re going to need to carry me.”

“What?”

“I can’t walk and carry these two and carrying them back normally will take too long. If you carry me I can carry these two with my psionics, drop them by the ship and then carry them into the ship whilst you come back here and help Kanaya.”

More laser shots and he sighed before laying Terezi down and turning his back to Aradia and she reluctantly climbed onto his back and closed her eyes. Slowly Terezi and Feferi rose and levitated a meter off the ground. Satisfied that Aradia was focused and that the wounded weren’t about to be dropped heavily onto the floor and with the sound of another introllian screech behind him Karkat set off at walking at a brisk pace, Feferi and Terezi hovering closely behind.

In the distance, far from the settlement but getting closer, the ground began to shake violently as something big moved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey just a reminder I'm still taking requests on here and at my tumblr.
> 
> Just drop a comment at http://archiveofourown.org/works/4309218/chapters/9767898
> 
> or message me at
> 
> http://sirhate.tumblr.com/


	9. The climax of the hunt.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya's hunt comes to a close now they can begin to worry about rescuing Vriska and Tavros. Slowly orbiting the planet something terrible takes notes of their performance before leaving.

With a grunt Karkat let Aradia down at the foot of the entry hatch and stairs leading up into the ship, she stood shakily for a moment but managed to steady herself. Slowly one by one they managed to get Feferi and Terezi onto the ship and into the sickbay at which point Aradia shooed Karkat out of the room.

“Go help Kanaya, she’s going to need it. We all did basic first aid I can stabilise them by myself.”

She spoke whilst pushing Karkat from the room; he nodded in the doorway before setting off at a run back towards the biodome reaching the entrance minutes later panting and out of breath. He took the pause to check his rifle before taking a deep breath and entering the vast glass structure and the jungle contained within.

Kanaya fired another volley of weak impotent shots in the underbrush burning her way through the green matter as she continued to stride through the jungle with the confidence of a seasoned hunter. She could hear the creatures incessant hissing and heavy breathing, smell the salty coppery stench of its blood smeared everywhere.

Red rotten blood, how foul. Killing this beast would be doing it a favour.

“Just die you whelp!”

The creature roared; leaping from a spot to her left, she neatly sidestepped and shoved the gun into the creature’s chest and fired as fast as she could. The gun heated and burned her hand but she continued to fire, her hand began to smoke but she continued to fire, the barrel of the gun melted and still she fired until the battery wore down. The creature screamed and squirmed in agony as it collapsed to the ground with half its body turned to charred remains.

She rose and discarded the gun and flicked her wrist pulling out the plasma claws as she stood over her quarry. The creature attempted to drag itself away from her but Kanaya simply placed one boot on its body to hold it in place. The creature squirmed and slowly turned its rotten stump of a head towards her; there was a strange look in her eye, a mixture of desire and fury and she licked her dry lips as she raised the claws to finish it off.

“Please…”

The simpering mess pleaded and she hesitated for only a moment before plunging the weapons into that stump. The creature spasmed violently before shuddering down into a mess of tangled, broken, bloody limbs. She cut open its stomach and let its guts spill out onto the floor; releasing a rancid smell that sent her stumbling back to a nearby tree to puke up her own guts. She gasped and shook her head and finally raised her right hand to examine the damage that the overheated rifle had done to it.

Her entire palm was a burnt mess and only now was the pain beginning to register as blisters began to well up all over her hand. She hissed and made to move only for her left leg to buckled underneath her; she cried out as she hit the ground and looked down to see the only wound that the creature had managed to land on her, a huge gash in her thigh that made it difficult to stand. She sighed and uneasily pulled herself up using her left hand and leaning against the tree that she had just puked on.

Today was turning out to be a bad day.

“Kanaya?”

She looked up to see Karkat slowly step around the dead corpse, wrinkling his nose and clearly fighting the need to vomit himself as he walked over and took her weight on to his shoulders and helped her walk back through the biodome.

“Where are Vriska and Tavros?”

He asked, pausing for a moment to let her rest against a nearby tree.

“Still down the mine shaft. I brought mines to try and break the cave in; use them one at a time.”

She said as she handed the bag with the mines in them over to Karkat who shouldered the bag before picking her up again. Suddenly there was a yell of indignation and a loud thump as someone big, heavy and strong hit the ground in front of them. For a moment they both stared down in horror at Equius’s body but with a grunt he flexed and his bindings snapped like string.

“What happened?”

He said as he slowly pushed himself up off the ground apparently unfazed by his sudden descent and merely dusted himself off.

“Also where are my clothes?”

Kanaya and Karkat stood there a little dumbstruck at the buff naked form of their chief engineer and both shrugged; no one knew what that parasite had done with their clothing but right now Karkat and Kanaya were starting to really wish they did.

“You were ambushed by some kind of predator; presumably one at a time as I was able to dispatch it quite easily. We do not know where your clothes are and seeing as you are awake do you think you could find Eridan and bring him back to the ship. Karkat can retrieve Tavros and Vriska they are trapped in the mine but he has adequate tools to help them.”

Kanaya said weakly, slowly leaning more and more of her weight against Karkat. The pain was starting to get to her. Equius regarded them curiously before walking over and picking Kanaya up and slinging her over his shoulder before she could protest.

“Eridan can wait you are in need of urgent medical attention miss Maryam. Karkat I am counting on you to bring back Vriska and Tavros; their deaths will be on your head if you fail.”

He scowled at Equius but nodded.

“No fucking pressure right?”

Equius just fixed him with a level gaze and nodded slowly.

“No pressure.”

He rolled his eyes and set off at a sprint towards the exit whilst Equius readjusted Kanaya on his shoulder and headed over at a slower pace, acutely aware of Kanaya’s injuries.

“Equius?”

“Yes?”

There was a pause and then he silently turned her around so that she was facing his rear rather than his front.

“Thank you.”

He continued on, blushing furiously.

“My apologies.”

“It is fine Equius.”

Kanaya reassured him although she wondered how many days it would take for her to get that image out of her head. All it did was cement her interest in women; there was no way she was letting that inside her.

Suddenly a tremor shook the building followed by a noise that sounded uncomfortably like reality tearing itself apart as a monstrous brown worm crashed through the ceiling of the building and descended down into the ground leaving a huge hole where it had entered the earth. Equius paused and it took Kanaya a moment to realise that, like her, he was frozen in terror.

“I just sent Karkat underground.”

“Equius we need to leave.”

Kanaya said quietly, almost silenced by the fear that now gripped her heart. They could kill many things but something like that was beyond them. If it reached the ship they would be stranded on this planet.

“Equius! We need to be moving now! Karkat will be fine.”

With a slow nod he began to move again, at first it was a stiff walk but it soon escalated until he was making long powerful strides and eating up the distance to the space ship.

High above the atmosphere orbiting the planet a massive craft waited. The systems were disabled and there was only a single living soul aboard the ship.

“My lord.”

A small man in a white suit with silver hair spoke from his position in front of a panel. His cheeks were sunken and he looked all the world like a corpse. His appearance was immaculate with each and every detail of its design purposefully placed to give the impression that this man was something more and less than human; artificial in appearance and personality.

“The initial tests show promise; would you like us to continue with the project?”

He turned to the figure sitting the center of the room; a great hulking mass of a man pinned to a chair by wires and tubes that kept him alive and fed him constant updates on the ship’s condition. He nodded slowly, not speaking and his expression remaining the same. His eyes glowed as data surged into his head and he nodded again. Slowly the ship shuddered to life and departed the system.

Back on the surface in the pilot’s node Sollux sent out scout probes to examine the sudden appearance of this massive ship; they came back with nothing, devoid of information. Whatever it was it left as silently as it came. Sollux shuddered, something was horribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still taking requests both here and on my tumblr.


	10. It was only a kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two people kiss but not who you think! Karkat moves quickly to rescue Vriska whilst Vriska struggles to overcome the psychic powers of a pile of flesh.

Vriska had to admit she didn't have a damn clue where she was; one minute she was firing at a seething mass of psychic organic matter and the next she was in a field of flowers. She looked around, her rifle slowly falling to her side as she stared towards a horizon which seemed to extend infinitely in every direction. Overhead storm clouds began to gather and suddenly the ground beneath her gave way and she was floating upwards into the sky.

She reached her hands out as she approached the clouds and sparks flew from her fingertips as they swelled and burst into thousands of bright blue flower petals. They fell to the ground beneath her covering the landscape in a pool of what looked like her blood. But they had to be the petals she reasoned, there was nothing else they could be.

Slowly she righted herself until she was standing on nothing but air and looked around; the pool of blue petals seemed to be blooming and growing in size beneath her and she gave it a cursory glance before something caught her attention. Floating in the air a few steps away from her was a chair with a slumped figure in it; she approached it cautiously and the figure looked up and for a brief moment they looked exactly like every single person she had ever met. The face flickered and changed constantly not halting for even a second until finally settling on Tavros.

“Why do you hurt me?”

She reeled back in disgust from it before raising her rifle and firing a single shot between the apparition’s eyes. The body simply chuckled and its head snapped back to face her; a great hole occupying the left side of its face but no blood or gore spurted from the wound.

“You are a lost little blue blood.”

The voice cackled and suddenly they were both falling towards the ground. Vriska screamed and raised her arms to try and protect herself from the fall only to go bursting through the ground and out the other side in a cascade of flowers. She looked around and saw the figure still sitting in the chair slowly floating downwards.

“I pity you; you have no chance against me with your unrefined talents. I could subjugate an entire planet by myself and you can barely convince a single rustblood to love you.”

“Shut up!”

She screamed as she fired at the figure again; the shot connected and dissipated the image like a ripple of water. She was panting, turning around desperately trying to see what else this strange world had to offer her.

Slowly the flowers around her began to wilt and rot and turn into a strange fleshy substance that pulsed and spurted red ooze all over the place. Her stomach churned at the sight and she had to stop herself from puking at the sight of the rot.

Slowly she fell back towards the field and land with a sickening squelch; this close she could see now that the writhing mass were the dead bodies of every troll she’d ever killed, of every one she had fed to her lusus, they were writhing and reaching out towards her demanding she answer for her crimes. Bloody torn hands reached up from the mass to grab and grope at her as they slowly pulled her down towards the mas of flesh.

Suddenly the entire world shook violently and for a brief moment she was back in that cavern; the ceiling shaking and lumps of rock falling all around her. Nearby there was the dead body of the strange person who had brought her here laying in a pool of blood with half its head missing. She glanced down at her recently fired gun and then back up at the strange creature that occupied the center and then she was lost again.

This time it was a labyrinth that expanded endlessly outwards from where she stood. Where she stood there were eight entrances and she spun on the spot trying to pick one before setting off at a sprint down what she presumed was the northern most exit only to enter the area again from the south. Desperately she left through the east exit and returned through the west one.

Suddenly the walls around her began to twist and warp and words etched themselves into the surface.

“You are insignificant.”

“You are unimportant.”

“No one will love you.”

“No one will remember you.”

“Your existence is meaningless. “

Tears began to well up in her eyes as she began to frantically spin on the spot, rushing off in random directions only to end up back where she started. Collapsing to her knees she dropped her gun and ran her hands over her face as the words began to speak in the voices of her friends. Slowly, shakily she reached over for her gun and began to turn it on herself.

Karkat had to admit when he saw the giant worm crash into the biodome he had the sudden almost uncontrollable urge to get off the elevator that he was using to descend into the mines and run as fast as he could back to the ship. It took a great deal of self-control to convince himself to continue heading down into the mines. He took a slow shuddering breath and pushed the button that told the elevator to descend.

Vriska and Tavros better be fucking grateful he thought, otherwise he might just kill them himself.

At the bottom he was assaulted by the sudden presence of darkness and rock; the tremors from the mighty worm causing a great deal of structural damage to the air filters, lights and supports in the mine. He shuddered and advanced forward into the darkness until he found the wall of rock that kept him from his friends.

Quickly he placed the charges roughly thirty centimetres and stepped back as he detonated them with a shot from his laser rifle. The first mine detonated the others and balls of molten metal burned a meter tall hole through the rubble all the way through to the other side where they hit the floor and rolled about until they fizzled out. Karkat stepped through the gap and glanced around before nearly shooting himself in the foot when Tavros grabbed his leg to get his attention.

“Karkat I don’t know where Vriska is but something is coming; I heard shots coming from down the shaft but there’s something big coming.”

He said quickly, pointing desperately into the darkness. Karkat had to admit that he was more than a little taken off guard by the fact that Tavros wanted him to save Vriska all things considered. The entire ground shook and the ceiling shuddered uncomfortably; even Karkat could sense the mighty presence of whatever was approaching them.

“I’ll come back for you.”

He said to Tavros before setting off at a run down the mineshaft, the light at the end of his rifle swirling wildly in front of him and illuminating the floor and ceiling. It felt like the earth was groaning.

  
Tavros lay there trapped for the most part before deciding he would do what he could and reached out with his mind; larger monsters were always more difficult to bend to his will and the titanic monster that was this great worm was something beyond even his talents. However he could confuse it, slow it even but not for long. He could only hope that Karkat would be quick.

As Karkat stumbled into the chamber he only had a moment to take everything in before dashing over and kicking the gun violently out of Vriska’s hands. Her fingers still made the motion to pull the trigger but when nothing happened she stared down in confusion, unable to form words.

“Vriska what the fuck are you doing we need to leave!”

She still continued to try to pull the trigger of the gun she believed was in her mouth before finally seemingly discarding it herself and resting her head in her hands as she began to sob grossly. Muttering over and over the words that the voices had spoken to her. He knelt down and gently pulled her hands out of her face and took it in his hands trying to bring her back from wherever she was gone.

“Vriska?”

She was still crying and her eyes seemed vacant and empty, her mind was somewhere else. He slapped her and she didn’t even respond whilst she continued to mutter “no one will love me” again and again like some kind of mantra. His mind raced as chunks of ceiling fell all around them and he slapped her again. She was bigger than him and he wasn’t exactly strong enough to carry her and Tavros. He groaned inwardly but desired to go out on a limb; if she needed someone to love her to bring her back then he’d have to pretend for now. He leant in and kissed her on the lips.

The moment their lips touched he was there in her twisted and warped world with her but for only a brief moment before they were both hurtling back to the real world. They stared at each other for a very long moment and slowly pulled away, their eyes wide. Something had changed irreversibly between them, he could feel her inside his head and at first he thought it was just more of her mind tricks but her rising panic told him that it was more than that.

She could feel him inside her mind too.

“What did you do.”

“I have no fucking idea.”

“Why did you kiss me?”

“You were muttering about no one fucking loving you so I figure if I fucking kiss her she might snap the fuck out of it.”

They were still staring at each other, their minds linked intricately and he found himself struggling to disentangle her thoughts form his own. It was like chasing cats that turned out to be dogs, one moment he found himself going red for Tavros the next he felt nothing but fury at the brownblood. Vriska herself struggled to stop herself from thinking about finally confessing all of her feelings for Nepeta but hesitated because she still had red feelings for Terezi and…

“This is going to be messy.”

They said in unison.


	11. A long overdue ending.

# A different kind of connection

Their minds intermingled and thoughts flew in every direction as they tried to sort out who was who in this mental clusterfuck. What it took in the end was the sheer terror of being crushed to death to get them both moving. Parts of the ceiling began to cave in and the trembling of the worm only aggravated the situation.

Karkat lifted Vriska up off the ground and on to her feet and did his best to drag her back towards the exit whilst also trying to ignore the fact that his memory of the kiss was him kissing himself. Vriska stumbled to her feet and did her best to follow him but her legs felt like jelly and it was proving difficult for her to keep up with his pace especially when her usually cocky and confident personality was being overridden by Karkat’s abject terror at the thought of being buried alive.

They stumbled through the darkness with the cave walls and the ceiling collapsing all around them; bits of rock landing in front of them causing them to trip and slowing their pace down to a series of fumbles in the dark. Behind them they heard the sound of the worm aligning itself with the tunnel and slowly grinding its way through the dirt and rock towards them as they stayed barely two steps ahead of them.

Ahead of them Tavros had awoken and begun to panic; he couldn’t feel his legs and was gripped with the realisation that he might very well be buried alive down here. He wondered if anyone was coming for him or if they’d just left him to die like the deadweight he was. He contemplated turning his gun on himself briefly but reconsidered it when he heard the voices of his friends come from down the tunnel.

The pair stumbled next him and began to speak rapidly; their voices working interchangeably as though they were the same person. They seemed to edge away from him before pulling themselves back as though they were fighting each other on whether to stay or not only they swapped who was for which option every moment. Slowly the great worm gained ground and was approaching them; Tavros glanced between the babbling idiots and the beast and saw a chance to be the hero for a change.

He closed his eyes and pushed his psychic ability to its limit and the beast ground to a halt about two feet away from the panicking duo. They looked at it; gripping each other reflexively and staring at the mighty earth eating beast that had pacified. The tunnel was now being held up by the mass of the beast and with the cessation of its movement the massive structure above them was stable.

“Okay uhhh guys what happened to you two?”

“I went to fight this weird psychic flesh thing.”

Said Karkat.

“Whilst she was doing that I helped Miss Fussyfangs kill some kind of ultimate predator.  Or rather I helped her carry the bodies back.”

Said Vriska.

“Next thing I know I wake up and she’s kissing me!”

“Now everything is fucked up and we don’t know who is who.”

Tavros stared at them and slowly blinked; trying to make sense of the situation that had presented itself to him. This was weird; even by their friendship groups standards this was weird. Out of everyone on the crew he would have never put these two together with that kind of connection. It was an asinine ship and frankly felt a little forced given the current situation.

However the two seemed to be telling the truth and every time one of them spoke they had a perpetual look of confusion on their faces; as though they were surprised to hear their own voice coming from their lips.

“We need to leave; Feferi and Terezi were really badly injured and the longer we’re here the more danger they are in.”

Vriska said urgently although when she paused to think about it she had no idea how she knew any of those facts. Karkat nodded in agreement reaching down and trying to pull Tavros whose legs remained firmly pinned beneath a giant clump of rock. The rustblood yelled in agony and beat Karkat away with his hands and settled back down on the floor breathing heavily before fixing them both with a glare.

He had to blame someone for his current predicament and they were nearby and easy enough.

“What’re we going to do?”

He says expectantly towards the two of them; they just pull up a blank, they’re too frazzled from the last five minutes to do anything productive. He rolls his eyes and reaches over to pull them both over to him and points at his legs that are trapped under the huge chunk of rock. He looks at it for a second before licking his dry legs and saying the words he had been too terrified to say from the start.

“You’re uhh going to have to uhh shoot uhh them off.”

He said weakly; looking at the two as they tried to justify what they were about to do in their heads. Clearly Karkat’s conscious was beginning to become a little overbearing for Vriska and she was getting increasingly frustrated with his intrusive desire to do the right thing.

They rose their rifles and aimed them at his legs and Tavros closed his eyes; they fired and the laser blasts connected with the tissue with enough force and heat the shots managed to sever the legs in one clean shot. He fainted instantly which was fortunate because he probably would have screamed incessantly when his legs were forcibly removed from the rest of his body.

They both turned to the mighty worm but it remained complacent, gently rotating in the tunnel with what could only be described as a dopey smile on its face. After a few moments they realised they were gripping each other and slowly let each other go. They leaned down and lifted Tavros up and began to drag him towards the exit; grateful that the tremors had stopped and all the conceivable threats were dealt with.

“What’re we going to say to Nepeta?”

“What are we going to say? That’s your problem!”

“Vriska?”

“Yes?”

“You’re speaking with my body atm.”

“Oh… It’s still your problem.”

“Yeah but we’re going to have to talk to her together otherwise she’ll get only half of the fucking message.”

“Right.”

“You really need to tell her how you feel.”

“When you stop using the threat of violence to force Tavros to stay with you out of fear you’ll die alone I’ll take your advice.”

“Asshole.”

“Bitch.”

The elevator slowly began to rise and they both slumped down to the ground next to each other; leaning their bodies back to back and looking down at Tavros’s unconscious and legless form. The lasers had fortunately cauterised the wound but still the charred stumps sent a wave of nausea passing through the two.

They both groaned and looked away; being fifty percent of a conscience that swapped bodies as if on whim didn’t help.  Their views kept changing perspective and with the rising elevator their disorientation was not only shared but amplified.

Finally the elevator broke the surface and they exhaustedly stood up and carried Tavros’s stumpy body back to the ship and dumped him in the med bay, pushing their way through the crew and dropping the body down on the third bed and last bed left.

In the room Nepeta, Terezi and Kanaya were propped up on a single bed and Feferi was laying down with a drip attached to her arm. The crew was gathered in and outside the med bay with the exception of Sollux who was still at the helm.

“I’ll… tell Sollux to take off. Wwe are going to need to head to a military hospital.”

Eridan said as he made his way past everyone and up to the bridge.

A thought crossed Karkat’s mind and so it crossed Vriska and just as he was about to protest she sent a mental message to shut up so sharp that it left him speechless. She had realised what he hadn’t; if he revealed his blood colour now whilst Feferi, Kanaya and Nepeta were incapacitated then Gamzee and Eridan would just cull him on the spot.

He fell silent and leaned against her; his head resting on her shoulder and her head resting on top of his and their hands moved almost instinctively to hold each other’s. Nepeta saw this small display of affection and felt her heart sink a little; she was confused and torn because right now she’d never seen Karkat more at peace.

The ship takes off with its wounded crew and they begin to make their way towards the nearest space port; a human-troll trading post. One of the few places of interspecies dialogue in known space.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would apologise but you guys are probably used to my hilariously inconsistent update schedule. I could give Andrew Hussie a run for his money.
> 
> Also that update tho.
> 
> It's a bit brief but I'm eager to begin the next part of this project! Something a bit less tense and more shippy/fluffy with a couple of space gays!
> 
> As always I welcome all criticism but just remember though my feelings are fragile.


End file.
